Maya Michaels


 * Maya Michaels: "A 'narcisstic drunk'? Of all of the things in the Big Book of Maya that you could possibly write about and you choose 'narcisstic drunk'? It's pityful." 


 * George Seven: "For you maybe. Keep in mind I chose 'plays poorly with others' for Mason."


 * -- Maya Michaels and George Seven during Evaluation.

Maya Elouise Michaels (b. December 24 1995) is the daughter of Elouise Michaels and Warren Michaels.

Maya discovers that due to The Genesis Project experiments, she's developed the ability to travel through time and teleport.

She is portrayed by Victoria Justice.

Background
Maya was born in Boca Raton, FL and has lived there her entire life. She was born to the former action movie star, Warren Michaels, and his yoga instructor-wife, Elouise Michaels. Her father quit his budding movie career to be a part of the secret government agency Geneticis and the family of three learned to live quite comfortably in their Boca Raton estate home.

During the summer of 2010, Maya and her family were on a cruise ship and on the last day, Elouise Michaels decided to take a motor boat out for a ride. However, when she didn't return for hours, Maya and her father grew worried and sent out a search party for her. Elouise Michaels was found knocked unconscious and drowned, floating outside the boat in the middle of the sea.

Her mother's death changed Maya, making her disconnected and more accustomed to pushing people away. She develops a strong drinking habit that makes her appear as an alcoholic to outsiders. She slips in and out of despair sometimes, and when people like Bo Tate-Cannon or new friend George Seven try to tell her to snap out of it, that she's ruining her life, she replies with "Maybe I'm just not worth saving."

Maya drives a silver Lexus that looks as if it just drove off the lot and due to her mother's tragic death by drowning, she is terrified of water.

Physical Appearance:
Maya is described as being strikingly beautiful, resembling her mother in the strongest way possible. She has warm brown eyes that sparkle in even the dimmest of lights and long chocolate waves that shine like they belong on a shampoo commercial.

She has a lean build and more of a feminine physique in comparison to Bo's muscular tone.

It's been rumored that because of her extraordinary good looks she's been approached by modeling agencies though Maya has never confirmed nor denied the rumor.

Personality Traits:
Having grown up very privileged, Maya is often mistaken as "The Four S's" - superficial, snobbish, spoiled, and stuck-up, and she doesn't do much to convince people otherwise. Three years after her mother's death, she is still struggling to come to terms with it and when it comes near the anniversary she has a tendancy to drink in excess and avoid daily life. The beginning of book sees Maya recovering from her most recent alcoholic binge and returning to school after a weeklong absence.

Maya is the typical party girl and though her friends - mainly Bo Tate-Cannon and Kylie Marshall - see it as a mask to hide her hurt, everyone else thinks of her as a selfish, carefree drunk.

Superhuman Abilities and Skills:

 * Maya - "You can't laugh. I'm going to tell you something and you're going to want to laugh but you have to swear to me that you won't. Okay? Because if you can't swear that to me, I'm not going to tell you anything." 


 * Bo - (trying to collect herself through her laughs) "Okay. I'm done. I promise. Now, what's so devastatingly important that has you sneaking into the hospital to visit me after visiting hours?" 


 * -- Maya trying to spill about her newfound abilties to Bo Tate-Cannon.

Maya discovers in a state of drunken sorrow that she has the ability to control time. She first discovers this when she's staring at a clock and makes the second hand tick backwards for a second. She further investigates this ability and eventually realizes she can stop time, go back in it, and make it go forward. In addition, she is able to teleport anywhere in the world if she focuses hard enough.

When she learns this, she struggles with the decision to go back in time and fix wrongs - something she can easily do now. She wonders if it would be okay to go back to the exact moment when her mother fell off the boat and save her. She ponders convincing Bo's parents not to go for a drive that fateful December night. She wonders if she should go back in time to reverse every bad thing that's happened to her and the others but is convinced that sometimes, things do happen for a reason.

Relationships:

 * Despite her rather cold exterior, Maya manages to hold a few close relationships and though she tries to push everyone away, there are a few that she can't.

Kylie Marshall:
Kylie is Maya's best friend since kindergarten and despite everything the two have only grown closer in their friendship. They used to take ballet classes together but Maya decided that she hated the entire institution of dance and quit while Kylie grew to be very good at it.

During Maya's weeklong absence from school, Kylie says that she had to call her father to make sure she was alright, otherwise she may have involved the police. Kylie and Maya's relationship was based in their toddler dance class and now the two girls do everything together - along with their mutual best friend Bo Tate-Cannon.

Maya admits to always having a secret thing for Kylie's twin brother Mason Marshall - who's been with Bo for two years now - and when the "perfect couple" breaks up, Mason and Maya begin flirting with each other, which makes Kylie angry. Kylie accuses Maya of being with Mason before the breakup and doesn't completely believe her when she denies it, though Mason and Maya soon break up later because of the strain it's placing on her relationship with both Bo and Kyile.

Kylie is also the one who forces Maya to decide whether or not she's doing the right thing by going back in time with her newfound ability and righting the wrongs. She forces her to take a hard look on her morality and decide if she's doing these things because she thinks other people will benefit from it, or because she will. Since Maya has always been a little selfish, it makes the decision difficult and causes a rift between the girls.


 * Maya - "You don't see me sitting here judging you, do you? I'm not making you feel guilty! So why do you always have to do it to me?"


 * Kylie - "Because I think you need to take a serious look at what you think you're going to do here. You're talking about changing the past! Haven't you ever heard of the Butterfly Effect? You can't change the past without changing the future! And what have I got to be guilty about? I never even use my ability!" 


 * Maya - "The fire, at Bo's. Face it, you started that fire just as much as she did. Without you, she would've never had your damn flamethrowing and she wouldn't have had to drop out of that Nationals competition. She would've still had a shot at a professional career but you ruined that." (notices Kylie fighting back tears) "You feel that? That's called 'guilt' and it sucks which is why I choose not to feel it." 


 * -- Maya and Kylie Marshall arguing.

Eventually the friends make up when they realize that things are more serious than they originally planned, and try their best to settle all future disputes with an open mind - since they're both going through things that the other could have trouble understanding.

Bo Tate-Cannon:
Bo moves to town in sixth grade and is taken in by Maya and Kylie Marshall almost immediately and the three become and inseparable trio. Bo's free-spirited, fun-loving, sometimes reckless personality brought a lot of joy and fun to their group and Maya says that without her, things could've been much different.

Together, Maya and Bo spend a lot of times going to parties, hanging out, and having tons of fun. After both of them lose their parents (Maya's mother and both of Bo's parents) the two girls become much closer and mourn their losses together. Even though Maya and Kylie were always great friends, she says that in this aspect only Bo could understand what she was going through.

When Bo begins a relationship with Mason, Maya realizes that she had some small feelings for him and that they were never quite resolved. After their breakup, and Mason and Maya get together briefly, she realizes that she doesn't want to be the "skanky best friend" and the two end it. Bo is left clueless during that whole time even though Kylie wasn't, and Mason tells Maya that he'll be the one to talk to Bo and after the first revelation, the girls struggle to talk to each other but soon make up because Bo says that she feels awful getting mad at Mason for rebounding with someone so close to her when she's moving on with his own brother, Levi Marshall.

Mason Marshall:
Maya admits to a small crush on Mason that she never realized she had until he was with Bo, but doesn't act upon it. The two are decent friends while he's dating Bo, but after their breakup, he and Maya begin to innocently flirt with one another, and eventually end up kissing. But Maya breaks off the fling quickly because Kylie finds out and is getting on her for it, and she claims she doesn't want to be forever known as the bitch that slept with her best friend's ex-boyfriend. Mason understands but tells Maya that he'll be the one to tell Bo about their brief fling since he values friendship too much and doesn't want the girls to lose what they have. Even though this causes Bo to be angry with Maya at first, the girls move on and Maya and Mason stay friends, but nothing more.

George Seven
Maya's friendship and later relationship with George is completely accidental at first. He helps her to understand what is going on with her - thanks to his father's research - and in return, Maya offers to say 'hi' to him publicly in the hallway. This leads to an unorthodox relationship brewing - because George has been in love with Maya forever - and the two grow closer.

George seems to have a genuine care about Maya's well-being, even though they haven't been friends for that long, and Maya struggles to ignore that maybe it's because they like each other. Eventually, she decides to "screw it" (meaning the risk of social suicide for even associating with George) and kisses him. She says she feels more fireworks in that kiss that she's ever felt before and the two shortly after begin dating. Maya struggles to be up front about their relationship, especially in school with the Homecoming Court elections coming up. She doesn't want to risk her crown or her popularity for being seen dating someone of 'lower high school social class' and after trying to convince George that they should sneak around - which they do for a while - they eventually come clean.

George fully recognizes Maya's flaws, yet instead of trying to change them like everyone else does, he instead embraces them. He learns to laugh off her sometimes shallow remarks and accept that even though she doesn't try to, she will come off selfish sometimes. When he confronts Maya about her drinking and tells her that she doesn't have to be that person, Maya replies that George makes her want to be a better person. She also says, however, that she's grown so accustomed to the person that she's been that she's not sure if she is ready to abandon her just yet. The two manage to make their relationship work and George helps Maya face her fears of water and losing her mother to the point where Maya gets help for her drinking.

Micah Peters:
Since Micah is sort of a loner, he doesn't really associate much with other people, much less the Populars. He is cold to Maya and calls her "Barbie" which makes Maya angry. When he begins spending a lot of time with Kylie, Maya decides that she should give this kid a chance, but is constantly picking on him and making comments about his grown-out hair, motorcycle attire, and vintage Camaro. The two develop a love-hate relationship for the sake of Kylie.

Levi Marshall:
Maya first sees Levi back when he visits Bo in the hospital, and describes him as a "sexy business man who can visit me anyday." She fnds his age difference hot - well, just about every part of him hot actually - but warns Bo to be careful with him. Little does she know the friendship between Levi and Bo is genuine and that he does truly care about her.

Maya considers Levi her friend at the end of everything, and he even helps her to discover what really happened with her mother's death years ago.

Warren Michaels and Elouise Michaels:
Warren and Elouise are Maya's parents. She says she had a closer relationship with her mother than her father, and when her mother died she struggled with it - even developing an alcoholic addiction at the young age of seventeen. Living with her father, Maya says that since Elouise's death, he's been partying more frequently and has been more distant, though she never had much of a relationship with him in the first place. Warren is supposedly hooking up with random women and commonly gets home late - well past his office hours - though because of this, he does not parent Maya much. She said even before her mom died, she was raised by a handful of nannies and houseworkers and that she misses her mom for the conversational reasons more than the actual "having a mom" reasons.